partly for the purpose of looking into some small investments of their
own, and partly for the fun of the thing. What funny experiences they
had! How, in particular, one horrid inquisitive, vulgar wretch had been
boring a European fellow passenger who was going to Hymettus, finally
asking him where he had come from last, and when he answered "Hymettus,"
thought the man was insulting him--

"But," interrupted the laughing Barker, "that passenger may have been
Demorest, who has just come from Greece, and surely Kitty would have
recognized him."

Mrs. Horncastle instantly saw her blunder, and not only retrieved it,
but turned it to account. Ah, yes! but by that time poor Kitty, unused
to long journeys and the heat, was utterly fagged out, was asleep, and
perfectly unrecognizable in veils and dusters on the back seat of the
coach. And this brought her to the point--which was, that she was sorry
to say, on arriving, the poor child was nearly wild with a headache from
fatigue and had gone to bed, and she had promised not to disturb her.

The undisguised amusement, mingled with relief, that had overspread
Barker's face during this lively recital might have pricked the
conscience of Mrs. Horncastle, but for some reason I fear it did not.
But it emboldened her to go on. "I said I promised her that I would see
she wasn't disturbed; but, of course, now that YOU, her HUSBAND, have
come, if"--

"Not for worlds," interrupted Barker earnestly. "I know poor Kitty's
headaches, and I never disturb her, poor child, except when I'm
thoughtless." And here one of the most thoughtful men in the world in
his sensitive consideration of others beamed at her with such frank
and wonderful eyes that the arch hypocrite before him with difficulty
suppressed a hysterical desire to laugh, and felt the conscious blood
flush her to the root of her hair. "You know," he went on, with a sigh,
half of relief and half of reminiscence, "that I often think I'm a great
bother to a clear-headed, sensible girl like Kitty. She knows people so
much better than I do. She's wonderfully equipped for the world, and,
you see, I'm only 'lucky,' as everybody says, and I dare say part of
my luck was to have got her. I'm very glad she's a friend of yours, you
know, for somehow I fancied always that you were not interested in her,
or that you didn't understand each other until now. It's odd that nice
women don't always like nice women, isn't it? I'm glad she was with you